Folding door construction



Jail 23, 1934- w. D. REDRUP 1,944,670

I FOLDING DOOR CONSTRUCTON Filed March 13, 1951 l5 PIE. l /7 A TTORNEY Patented Jan. 23, 1934 PATE-Nr Fries FOLDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION Will D. Redrup, Huntington, Ind., assigner to The Majestic Company, Huntington, Ind., a

corporation Application March 13, 1931'. Serial N0. 522,394

,2 Claims.

This invention relates to a sectional door, the

. sections of which are hingedly connected edge to edge and the sections of which may be horizontally superposed.

The chief object of this invention is to provide a sectional door of the aforesaid character with means whereby the door may be readily elevated or pulled down for opening or closing the door opening.

One feature of the invention consists in the combination hinge and handle construction.

Another feature of the invention consists in the truss construction which may be positioned on the door sections for a multiplicity of purposes.

A further feature of the invention consists in the provision of a pull down arrangement that is of non-entangling character and which is suitably protected by one of the truss means.

The full nature of the invention will be under- 201 stood from the accompanying drawing and the following description and claims:

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view through a door and door opening construction with the sectional door shown folded in the overhead position leaving the door opening exposed for passage therethrough. Fig. 2 is a rear or inside elevational View of the door. Fig. 3 is an elevational view with a combination hinge and handle. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one end of a truss construction. y y

In the drawing there is illustrated a sectional door construction for a door opening and herein l0 indicates the side wall of the Yopening which is formed by a combination counterweight housing and trackway, the trackway portion being indicated by the numeral 1l. Mounted on the combination housing is a cam type guide 12. Mounted overhead is a pair of pulleys 13 over which run cables, not shown, the concealed ends of which support counterweights in the combination housing 10. The other ends of said cables are suitably connected to the guide members 14 and 15 carried by the intermediate and lowermost door sections. The hinge 16 between the j second and third uppermost door sections 17 and 18 has its hinge pintle arranged to support the guide member. The guide members 14 and 15 are in the present form shown as rollers, although they may be sliding shoes or the equivalent. The

501 uppermost door section 19 is hingedly mounted at 20 on or adjacent the lintel. The lowermost section is indicated by the numeral 21. The lowermost section 21 of the door supports at each side a spring cam member 22 which engages the cam guide member 12 at each side of the door opening and the cam and spring serve to guide the door sections into straight position and to assist in maintaining the same in that position when the door is fully closed. f

All of the aforesaid construction is shown in the -cao-pending applications, Serial No. 425,101, iiled February 1, 1930 and Serial No. 490,863,1fi1ed October 24, 1930. These applications and the aforesaid description form no part of the present invention but are herein set forth merely g5 to assist in the understanding of the action and operation Aof the various parts embodied in the present invention.

When the door opening is relatively high, it is necessary to provide the same -with a pull down device which is herein shown in the form of a cable, `cordor rope 23 suitably secured at each end 24 to an eye or the like secured to the .housing 10, or said eye may be formed as an integral part of the cam member V12, both constructions '115r being shown herein. rThe intermediate portion of the cable extends across the bottom of the door section 2l as indicated at 25, and, suitably secured at 26 to the lower corner of each door, is a` pulley 27; Extending substantially from one end of the 8,70 door to the other and adjacent the bottom por tion or" the section 21 is a tubular truss indicated generally by the numeral 28. Said truss includes a tubular portion 29 having a longitudinal parting 30 and extending from each edge 31 thereof 35 is a wing 32 which terminates in an anchoring flange 33 having the openings 3e therein through which extend suitable anchoring means,l such 'as screws or the like, 35. The pull down'cable, cord or rope therein is fully protected and fully enclosed from side to side of the door.

When the door is in the elevated position, as shown in Figure 1, pulling down upon the rope 23 pulls ,down the door sectionsuntil the same are within reach of the operator. When the sections are fully closed, the cable, cordor rope is fully protected, as shown in Figure 2, Vandthe ,possi-r bility of tangling is completely eliminated by the aforesaid construction and likewise the possibility of wearing or catching under the door in the 1ro() closing movement thereof is likewise eliminated.

The truss means, indicated generally by the numeral 28 on the lowermost section of the door, in the initial downward movement of the door, may serve as a hand grip for pulling down the 10,5 door and, as the section gradually approaches the bottom of the door opening, the truss may be stepped upon and thus constitute a foot treadY for forcing the door section in its lowermost position. 111'() The upper portion of the lowermost door section 21 is also provided with truss means 36 which is likewise shown as extending substantially from side to side of the door section. This truss serves as a hand grip and said trusses also serve as door stifening members, permitting the door to be made of relatively lighter material. These trusses also serve to prevent warping oi the sections.

The lower portion of the upper door section 19 is also provided with similar truss means 37 which, as shown in Figure l, constitutes a bumper for the free or swinging end of the uppermost door section. rIhis truss means also servesas a stiffening member.

The uppermost door section is hingedly supported at the uppermost portion of the door opening by the hinges 20. The second section 17 is hingedly connected to the lower edge of the uppermost door sectionA 19 by the hinge constructions indicated generally by the numeral 38. The lowermost edge of `the third door section 17 is hingedly connected to the upper edge of the lower door section 18 through the hinges 39 and the lower edge of said second section 18 is connected to the upper edge of the lowermost door section 21 by the hinges indicated generally by the ntuneral 40.

The number of door sections is herein illustrated as four, although greater or less numbers may be employed. However, it has been found that four sections are neither too large nor too small but are approximately the right number so that the four sections conveniently close substantially all door openings. i

In order to assist in opening and closing the door from the outside, a suitable handle means is provided and herein the handle means is combined with the hinge construction as shown clearly in Figure 3. In said iigure, 41 indicates one leaf of a hinge construction; 42 indicates the cooperating leaf; 43 indicates the hinge pin receiving portion which cooperates with a complementary hinge pin receiving portion 44 on leaf 42. The handle 45 has inturned ends 46 and the handle thus is of loop formation and the aligned ends 46 extend into the hinge pin receiving portions 43 and 44 and serve to hingedly unite the hinge leaves together. As shown by the dotted lines in Figure 3, the aligned hinge pin forming portions of the handle 45 substantially abut each other in the hinge pin receiving portions of the leaves.

As shown clearly in Figure 2, the combination hinge and handle is preferably employed as hinge connections such that the'handle is exposed on the exterior of the door. As shown clearly in Figure 1, when the sections are positioned side by side in :folded relation, the handle readily nests between the sections.

As shown in Figure 2, each hinge connection between the door sections comprises at least three hinges although two or more may be employed for garage purposes. Also two central superposed combination hinge handles are employed. For boat house purposes the two end hinges are of the hinge handle type so that the doors may be opened from the outside by the person standing upon the wharf at either side of the opening in the boat house. However, there is nothing to prevent the employment of hinge handles at each side of the door for garage purposes nor from employing three or more hinge handles, as shown in Figure 2, although such a number is unneceSSa'Iy.

In the initial downward movement of the door, the hinge handle construction 40 is rst engaged and employed and then the hinge handle construction 38 may be manually engaged for closing the door. In the opening movement of the door, the hinge handle 38 is rst employed to start the sections upwardly and then to complete the upward movement the lower hinge handle 40 is manually engaged.

The invention claimed is:

1. In combination with a ceiling and a door opening, a folding sectional overhead door having at least three door sections hingedly connected together in edge-to-edge relation, an elongated combination bumper and hand grip tubular shell metal truss carried by the lowermost section for hand grip and foot tread purposes, another similar truss carried by the uppermost door section and arranged for ceiling contact for bumper purposes, each of said trusses extending from immediately adjacent one edge o the door to the opposite edge of the door and comprising an intermediate substantially tubular portion having a longitudinal parting, a wing extending outwardly and divergingly from each edge of the parting, and a door anchoring ilange on the opposite edge of each wing.

2. In combination with a ceiling and a door opening, a folding sectional overhead door having at least three door sections hingedly connected together in edge-to-edge relation, an elongated combination bumper and hand grip tubular shell metal truss carried by the lowermost section for hand grip and foot tread purposes, another similar truss carried by the uppermost door section and arranged :for ceiling contact for bumper purposes, each of said trusses extending from immediately adjacent one edge of the door to the opposite edge of the door and comprising an intermediate substantially tubular door having a longitudinal parting, a wing extending outwardly from each edge oi the parting, a door anchoring flange on the opposite edge of each wing, and pull-down cable means having its ends secured to the opposite sides of the door opening and its midportion passing longitudinally through the lowermost truss.

WILL D. REDRUP. 

